As a pitcher, I like to be — I don't want to say perfect, but I want to know what the ball is going to do.
- Mariano Rivera
OK, Mariano, if you don't want to say it. I will. The man has been about as close to perfect as you could ask a pitcher to be.
Rivera's season got off to a shaky start. His first two appearances came against the Red Sox, and in both games he failed to hold a 3-2 lead. Jason Varitek hit a 9th inning homer to tie that first game, but the Yankees rallied to win in the bottom of the inning; the second time, his defense kicked the ball around, Rivera gave up 5 runs, 4 of them unearned, and took a loss.
Since then, he's been pretty sharp:
GP W L SV IPT W L H R ER K W HR ERA 37 3 1 25 39.2 3 1 17 4 2 45 8 0 0.45I mean, will you look at those numbers?
Varitek's home run that first week in April is the only one he's allowed all year. He's striking more hitters than at any time since he became the Yankees' closer. The batting line against him is .148, .210, .188 - that's an OPS of .398, people.
You're wondering how the hell did he lose a game pitching this way? Much the same way he lost his first game, against Boston. The Yankees made three errors in the tenth inning on May 6; Rivera allowed three runs, only one of them earned.
He gave up no more runs in May, none in June, and so far in July he's allowed one run. The Yankees had a two-run lead, and he closed it out for the save anyway.
What's really strange is that this incredible, incredible performance has taken place almost under the radar. The man who has already established himself as arguably the greatest relief pitcher who ever lived, on the most famous and notorious team of our time, is pitching the best ball of his amazing career. And no one really seems to be paying him much attention.
So will you look at those numbers? Unbelievable...
Moving on to mere mortals, Barry Zito gave up three runs last night. This was the most that Zito had allowed in more than a month, but seeing as how his team had already given him a 10-0 lead, it's possible that he was just taking his foot off the pedal. Zito's now 6-0, 1.25 in his last seven starts, and Oakland now leads the Wild Card chase. That was quick.
Did anyone see this coming at the end of May when they had a 17-32 record? Did Billy Beane think this was possible? And even if anyone thought they might get back into the hunt, who thought it could happen this fast? I mean, they were going to have to play .700 ball, right? What were the odds, seeing as how they couldn't even play .400 ball through the first two months...
Whatever it took. Since the end of May, they've played .740 ball - they've won 37 of 50. The Angels and the White Sox are the only teams in the AL with a better record.
The second hottest team in the AL would be the guys from Tampa Bay, who hung another loss on Curt Schilling last night. Schilling actually looked pretty good. Trot Nixon... not so much. Nixon, who might be the worst baserunner since Chet Lemon, managed to spike a Boston scoring chance in the top of the tenth inning. Nixon was on second base when he managed to get hit by John Olerud's ground ball single up the middle. How does that happen? In the bottom half of the inning, with two out and Cantu on first, Nixon tried to make a catch of Huff's deep liner and missed it, although Cantu could very well have scored no matter how he played it.
From the Flogging A Dead Horse Dept., here's a note from Friend of Batter's Box Aaron Gleeman
I realize this horse has been dead a while already and I have long since admitted total defeat, but:
2005 STATS AVG OBP SLG OPS SALARY Shannon Stewart .287 .337 .411 .748 $6,000,000 Bobby Kielty .281 .376 .411 .787 $ 875,000Just saying.
OK, big showdown begins tonight - Washington goes to Atlanta to kick off a three game series. They have a four game series, at the end of August, also in Atlanta. The Braves come to Washington for three games in September. The two aces, Hernandez and Smoltz, kick things off tonight; tomorrow it's Loaiza and Hudson, and on Thursday it'll be Drese and Hampton.
The day's action:
AL
Texas (Rogers 11-4, 2.71) at Baltimore (Lopez 9-5, 4.37) 7:05
Minnesotia (Radke 6-9, 3.92) at New York (Johnson 10-6, 4.18) 7:05
Los Angeles (Byrd 9-6, 3.71) at Toronto (Chacin 9-5, 3.69) 7:07
Boston (Clement 10-3, 4.30) at Tampa Bay (Hendrickson 4-7, 6.82) 7:15
Chicago (Buehrle 11-3, 2.66) at Kansas City (Lima 3-8, 6.92) 8:10
Cleveland (Westbrook 7-12, 4.51) at Oakland (Blanton 5-8, 4.68) 10:05
Detroit (Johnson 6-8, 4.14) at Seattle (Pineiro 3-6, 5.72) 10:05
NL
Pittsburgh (Fogg 4-6, 4.92) at Florida (Moehler 6-6, 3.38) 7:05
Washington (Hernandez 12-4, 3.44) at Atlanta (Smoltz 11-5, 2.64) 7:35
Arizona (Webb 8-7, 4.03) at Milwaukee (Capuano 11-6, 3.80) 8:05
San Francisco (Lowry 6-10, 4.69) at Chicago (Maddux 8-7, 4.55) 8:05
Philadelphia (Lieber 9-9, 4.88) at Houston (Oswalt 13-8, 2.41) 8:05
New York (Ishii 3-8, 5.15) at Colorado (Francis 8-7, 5.57) 9:05
St.Louis (Mulder 11-5, 3.98) at San Diego (Williams 5-6, 4.57) 10:05
Cincinnati (Milton 4-10, 7.08) at Los Angeles (Perez 5-5, 4.56) 10:10
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